Thursday, October 18, 2007

Eleanor and Adam got married Saturday at the Sheep Barn on the Mansefeldt Estate, north of Fredericksburg. It was my first time there, and I found it to be an awesome property full of interestingly restored historical buildings. The bride's house you see here was formerly the parsonage for the church across the street.

As a photographer, I'm sort of flower illiterate, but even I could tell that Eleanor's centerpieces were totally rad. Did I just say rad? OK, I did grow up during the 80s... The bases were sort of a live sod. Very cool.

Throughout the day, we never had to worry where Adam was, because his faithful cattle dog Lacy was keeping a watchful eye. Watching everything else was Barbara Hearne, who kept everything running smoothly while at the same time remaining artfully unobtrusive.

The Sheep Barn has a sweeping view for big skies and sunsets. Many of the guests were bewitched with this, taking a break from their cocktails to shoot this themselves. I tried my best to give them a run for it.

Musical guest was none other than Texas legend Gary P. Nunn. This is the second time this year I've been lucky enough to get hired for the same event as Gary P.

This might be my favorite dancing picture ever.

Gary P. invited any guy who knew the words to come on stage and sing "You don't have to call me darlin', darlin'." I know all the words, but somebody had to take this picture.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Yesterday I had the privilege of photographing Brittany and Evan's beautiful wedding in San Antonio. We started at the Sunset Ridge Church of Christ, which has an amazing gothic revival chapel built in 1929.

No matter how many weddings I do, I always remind myself that we can't take the old churches like this for granted--they don't build 'em like this anymore. OK, I shouldn't ramble too much about history... Back on piont, let's meet the two dads.

Evan, getting some help with his suspenders.

Stained glass from Tiffany's New York.

And into the bride's room...

Is there any doubt left in your mind why they called this place Sunset Ridge? None left in mine!

This is not a typical group shot for me, but the groomsmen seemed to know a lot about building pyramids. How could I possibly say no to this?

For the reception, we ventured over to the Canyon Springs Golf Club.

Now I want to jump back and end on a random bit of the church's history... Aside from working with great people, getting to stumble across things like this exotic remnant of the Machine Age is what makes being a photographer fun.

To quote the church website: "The Carillon Tower... contains Deagan chimes, considered to be the finest make of tower chimes ever built... Unfortunately, due to the antiquity of the equipment and the expense of maintaining it in its historic condition, we are not currently able to use the chimes." We're looking at the the lost art of logic rendered in metal.